Help Tristan Repair His Home and Stay in Steamboat

The closest thing to a hometown my son Tristan has is Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We were in the Air Force until he was 7 and ended up relocating to Colorado, Steamboat Springs, when he was 11. I took a job there running a restaurant. It was a great place to raise a family but, has since priced working-class families right out of town. Tristan inherited a trailer in an income restricted trailer park from a family friend. This was his ticket to stay in the community that he has been a part of and loves. Tristan had earned a third-degree black belt in taekwondo over the years. This has enabled him to be an instructor at the Colorado Mountain College taekwondo club. It doesn’t pay well but, he loves the school and his students. He has worked with a lot of young people throughout the years at the school. Teaching them confidence and self-discipline. A lot of his students are now grown and have moved on in their adult life with the lessons, confidence, and discipline that they have learned from Tristan (Mr. Gonzalez). He has been a part of the Steamboat Christian Center since he was a teenager. Volunteering to run the churches coffee bar on Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings. Tristan has persevered through medical issues that he started having as a baby. Tristan lost hearing in one ear and has limited hearing in the other. This was discovered as a toddler. Hearing aides are not something that could remedy the hearing loss that he has encountered. He had to attend the elementary school on the base starting at just 3 years old just to learn to speak. When he was just 6 years old, he then was diagnosed with onset childhood diabetes. All these have created a different life, other than normal, for Tristan. He obviously doesn’t let it hold him back. He has to live a very regimented lifestyle to keep control of his diagnosis. He can’t just work any job, must eat and exercise at the same time every day, must turn an ear or read lips to communicate with others. And he’s insulin dependent. His medical needs are very expensive, and he does his best to keep up with it.

Having this trailer in the income restricted mobile home park is a blessing. However, it’s well over 50 years old and needs some significant repairs/replaced. Our family is not in the position, financially, to do full repairs or replace the trailer. The Yampa Valley Housing Authority (YVHA), a “non-profit organization”, had initially said they would give him a grant to help him with what needed to be done, repaired/replaced. He was ecstatic, they were going to help him stay in Steamboat. He’s always on time with his lot rent, never late. He takes care of the property the best that he can. Shortly after the hope they gave him for a grant they started to harass him about the repairs. He was confused. He asked about the grant they were supposed to be getting him. They told him there was no more money and that he would need to fix it on his own or remove it. Meanwhile, they approved an 11-week paid vacation for its board members after 7 years of employment with the YVHA https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/questions-raised-after-yampa-valley-housing-authority-board-approves-extended-leave-policy/. This will equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which his lot rent helps pay for. They are now putting the squeeze on him to fix or move. This has caused him and our family some serious stress. They are starting to bully him out of the park. This kind of stress isn’t good for anyone especially a diabetic.

What we’re attempting to do here is reach out to friends, family, and philanthropist to assist him with getting the funds together to help get the repairs done or to help him get a new trailer moved in altogether. Any donation of money, time, materials would be very appreciated and would help to move this project along to prevent a solid member of this community from having to move. This city has been under scrutiny for years for the lack of sympathy/support they have for the working-class people in this town. Years ago, when the YVHA started it was a breath of fresh air and gave hope to the less fortunate residence of the Yampa Valley. But these days, YVHA has turned into a cash cow for its board members.

We thank you for reading his story and hope that you can help in anyway.

Sincerely,

The Gonzalez Family